As parents, we want to do everything within our power to support our children’s well-being and development. It can’t get better when we find “a way” to spend quality time learning and bonding with our children in a joy-filled, child-centered, caring and educational atmosphere that is ALSO recommended by our pediatrician. We’ve “hit the jackpot!” WeJoySing is exactly one of those “jackpot” programs.

Dr. Brad Dickson of Southwest Pediatrics supports WeJoySing’s early childhood music and movement based programs and firmly believes that music education plays an integral part in a human being’s full academic and learning experience. His support is based on conversations with his patients who speak of WeJoySing “always with a smile!” and because of people “like Mrs. Kelly, WeJoySing Instructor, who genuinely care for children and have true passion and intelligence for music and teaching.”

Mrs. Kelly recently interviewed Dr. Dickson about his professional take on the value of music programs like WeJoySing in a child’s young life:

Kelly: Why do you think parent involvement and participation (“playing along with”) is important in a child’s development, especially in early childhood?

Dr. Dickson: Parent involvement and participation is important because the child’s social infrastructure and developmental progression is based on the parent’s interactions with the child.

Kelly: What are your thoughts about using play, singing, music, and movement in a child’s development?

Dr. Dickson: Brain development is greatly based on forming new “pathways” and to do this we need to try new healthy things every opportunity we can… from simple things like driving a different way to work, brushing our teeth with the non-dominant hand, to something as enriching and complex as learning music in a loving environment like WeJoySing.

Kelly: How do you think music and singing can be good parenting tools for things like making transitions and stressful times joyful, and creating developmentally appropriate experiences at home?

Dr. Dickson: Music in the parenting realm is vital because music is one of those rare things that brings our children a “mindfulness” or a true “being in the moment”... you are concentrating on music and therefore you have to be in the moment.

Kelly: We have the classes split up into developmentally appropriate age groups. What does the term “developmentally appropriate” mean from your perspective?

Dr. Dickson: To me developmentally appropriate means that a child is comfortable with the pace or complexity of what musical experience is happening.

WeJoySing is a powerful program for EVERY child, and Dr. Dickson especially promotes this program for children with complex mental health issues and challenges:

Kelly: What benefits do you see coming out of participating in a program like ours?

Dr. Dickson: Multiple benefits...especially with a large group of children that I take care of with mental health diagnoses like Autism, Bipolar Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Depression and ADHD. Children with these diagnoses are invariably super intelligent but have an excruciating time showing their intelligence because of a host of complex reasons...music is common ground for any of these children.

Kelly: What else would you like to add from a pediatrician’s perspective?

Dr. Dickson: As a pediatrician who has an ingrained passion to help children with complex mental health issues, I just dearly appreciate people like Kelly and programs like WeJoySing for sharing in the passion to help and advocate for any child with challenges.

We sincerely thank Dr. Dickson for sharing his thoughts on the importance of music in human development, for promoting WeJoySing to his patients and for sharing WeJoySing’s passion and devotion to helping young children develop and grow!

Mom of two cherished children, wife to wonderful hubby. WeJoySing instructor, graduate of OSU, teacher of children and teen drama classes at LTOB. Loves to act, sing and coach sports with her children!